Page 107 of The Chemistry of Us

“Yes.” I nodded. “I’m never leaving your side.”

He jumped to his feet and pulled me into his arms. “I think we need to move.”

“Nooooo, really? We were already planning on going after graduation…” I shrugged while he reached into his pocket and handed me a key.

I stared at it. “What’s this?”

“Our new house in Bellevue. I was waiting to surprise you.”

“You bought a house!” I shrieked.

He pulled me into his arms and kissed me. “I was going to ask you to move in with me, but I managed to skip that step right into a proposal and a baby.”

I pressed my face against his chest. “We do things so backward.”

“Meh, we wouldn’t be us if we did things right the first time. Straight lines are boring.”

“Agreed.” I kissed his mouth, then wrapped my arms around his neck. “When can I see the house?”

He twirled me around in his arms. “Once you let me introduce myself.”

“Huh?”

Before I knew it, he was on his knees in front of me again, but this time, he was cupping my hips and pressing his forehead against my stomach in awe. “Hi, baby. I’m going to be your dad.”

I would have married him on the spot by that sentence alone.

And thus began our love story.

Me.

Him.

And a baby.

EPILOGUE

Vaughan

Now

As a backup quarterbackin the league making around ten million a year and getting groomed to take over once the franchise quarterback retires in the next four years, I really have no complaints. Beyond that.

It’d been a year.

I had one infant and another baby on the way. How did that even happen? Again, we did things backward, but I wouldn’t change a thing.

My dad never really came around after the divorce, but he was still with Sandra, and they seemed to be happy. Not that I really cared, and my mom? Well, she’s an entirely different story. She decided to start a nonprofit and then after becoming a grandma or in her words “Nana,” she made the choice to start her own nonprofit supporting foster kids along with a neworphanage that she somehow managed to get sponsored by the league.

Apparently, when not controlled by my father or living in fear, she was able to break out of her shell and honestly change lives, and the person she invested in the most?

Tru.

I’d never seen my wife so happy. She finally had the family she wanted—one that she chose. They were so close that sometimes I felt left out, which honestly just put an annoyed smile on my face.

Tru became a mom.

And inherited mine.

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